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APRIL, 1990
the enjoyment of the banquet. In olden times the Gods themselves were held to partake of these gifts of food, just as the venerable dead were fed by meat and drink, placed or poured out upon their tombs. In the religions of savages, both Gods and the dead have very material needs among which the need of nourishment has the first place.2 Among Greeks of the seventh century B. C., sacrifices to water-gods, were simply flung into the river, or sea; and sacrifices to underground gods were buried, indicating the idea that the Gods were too ethereal to enjoy a sacrifice through any other sense than that of smell... Primarily, a sacrifice is a meal offered to the deity, but ordinarily the sacrifice is a feast of which the Gods and the worshippers partake together. The tendency was to give to all feasts, nay to all meals, a sacrificial character by inviting the Gods to partake of them. The Arabian invocation of the name of Allah over every beast killed for food is a relic of sacrificial formula. Among old Aryans, the sacrificial feast has had as its chief feature the Soma-rasa, Wine, which "cheereth Gods and men". The sacrificial meal was common to all the nature religions of the civilized races of antiquity. With the breakdown of this type of religion, the sacrificial ritual went under corresponding modification. Human sacrifices are associated with cannibalism, which means eating the flesh of men of alien nation or of hostile kin.4
The idea that God is the Lord of Creation, and hence the best, the most innocent, and the purest of His creatures should be offered to Him, accounts for the sacrifice of a son, of infants, of young boys, of human beings (Naramedha), of cows (Gomedha), of horses (Asvamedha), of buffaloes, goats, (Ajamedha), sheep, cocks, etc.
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Even in the present refined and civilized times, we find some rulers of Indian States and principalities celebrating the brightest day in the annals of Hindu tradition, the Vijaya Dasami, the day of the conquest of Rama over Ravana, by a wholesale massacre of buffaloes and goats in the name of religion, and a feast on the flesh thus obtained, is believed to be an act of religious piety.
The Muslim festival of Baquar-Id or Id-ul-Zuha commemorates the sacrifice of his son by Abraham; and in India where the cow is held sacred as a mother by the Hindus, the cruel cow-slaughter has during the last 45 years or so, led to serious riots, resulting in considerable loss of human life, and injury to person and property.
"Herodotus, V-92.
9 Judges, ix-13.
4
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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